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Reflections

Category: Spirituality

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Ache and Delight

The week before last was the fourth anniversary of my mother’s death and I shared here before that I have been feeling called to walk willingly into some dark places.   It turns out that the anniversary was also the day I had to end a friendship.  Friendship to me has always been sacramental and so not something I treat lightly. This friendship had actually been over for some time, but it took until now for us to realize that we each still have old wounds that have never been healed, despite our previous efforts.  It feels good to have some closure, but it was a

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Messy Spirituality

I freely admit that I crave a certain degree of order in my life.  On the Myers-Briggs I am an INFJ with a fairly strong organizational J.  That J serves me very well in work and thrives on deadlines. It is certainly what got me through a PhD program in under 6 years. I love my home to be neat and I have a hard time getting to work if its not (okay, so maybe it helps me procrastinate sometimes).  I can be the queen of planning and every day make lists of things to get done (although I often don’t accomplish

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Endings and Beginnings

Yesterday my sweet husband started back to work.  It was faculty meeting day and today he gets to meet all of his students.  I am always a bit sad at the end of summer–we get to spend so much time together and he truly is my best friend so we have a lot of fun, a lot of time to play and be.  This summer felt especially rich with treasures to explore together.  He really enjoys his work, the school where he teaches, his students, his co-workers, but it is hard to transition back to waking at six a.m. while I roll over

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Sense of Direction

Perhaps the most stressful part of our entire trip to Ireland in June was the driving and navigating. It wasn’t so much driving on the opposite side of the road, as the fact that almost all of their roads are extremely narrow.  Every time a truck or bus came the other way I cringed, sure that there was not enough room to get by.  And every time we drove through a town we would lose track of the road signs telling us which way to continue on to our destination.  My husband did all of the driving, mostly because we had to

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Illumination of Questions

“Think of the ways that questions illuminate the world around us.  Questions tune the soul.  The purpose behind questions is to initiate the quest. . . . We need to be introduced to our longings because they guard our mystery. Ask yourself what mystery is being guarded by your longing.”  -Phil Cousineau from The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred I am in the midst of one last journey of the summer, holding many questions in my heart, guarding many longings I am not yet able to name.   My quest feels like it was initiated long ago, but I

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Heading Home Again

I have returned home from my time of retreat.  I love Saltspring Island with its miles of farmland and sheep grazing, its community of working artists, its forested coastline.  Last Friday was a brilliant day, sun shining, baby geese everywhere, the world feeling so full of possibility. On the drive up I was listening to David Whyte’s CD set called Clear Mind, Wild Heart which I have borrowed from the library a half dozen times and finally made it through all six of the CD’s.  He talks about how we are both creatures of belonging as well as creatures of exile

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Retreat

I am leaving tomorrow for a few days of retreat on Saltspring Island up in British Columbia.  I am bringing Tune, my camera, my journal, and my art supplies, and I will meet one of my dearest friends up there. I went to Saltspring Island for the first time in January of 2006 and it was a powerful week of retreat for me.  Duke was with me and he kept vigil during that holy time.  I heard the whisper of the sacred presence all around me, calling me to new things that are still unfolding within me.  I spent hours walking

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